Domestic oven with removable wall panels



Feb. 4, 1969 R. DILLS DOMESTIC OVEN WITH REMOVABLE WALL PANELS Filed Sept. 21, 1967 Sheet INVENTOR. RANMOND D\\ L S FHS ATTO RUBY Feb. 4, 1969 3,425,405

DOMESTIC OVEN WITH REMOVABLE WALL PANELS I Filed Sept. 21, 1967 7 Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 1 RAYMOND L, D\L S H\S ATTORNEY United States Patent O US. Cl. 126-19 Int. Cl. A21b 1/00 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a domestic cooking oven having an oven cavity formed by a box-like oven liner and a front-opening access door. The oven liner is furnished with close-fitting removable wall panels that cover-the bottom wall, the opposite side walls, and the rear wall of the oven liner. A mating tab and hole connecting means serves as the supporting means between each panel and the adjacent wall of the oven liner so that each removable panel is independently supported and may be handled without interference from the other panels. The inner most surface of the panels may be coated with a resinous coating such as polytetrafluoroethylene or silicone having a low food soil adhesion characteristic to facilitate the ease of cleaning the panels at the kitchen sink. Another alternative would be to coat the panels with a high tem perature resistant porcelain enamel so that the panels may be removed from the oven liner and stacked in a separate high temperature self-cleaning oven to undergo the removal of the food soil by a pyrolytic process.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is related to ovens with removable wall panels to facilitate the ease of cleaning the panels of food soil and grease spatter that accumulates during normal oven operations. It has long been recognized that one of the most disagreeable housekeeping chores which a housewife must undertake is that of scouring the inner walls of her oven of accumulated food soils. To make this task less burdensome, various oven cleaning aids and chemical compounds have come into wide use. Probably the most convenient of these is the special oven design utilizing a pyrolytic method of cleaning the walls of the oven by raising the temperature of the walls into a heat-cleaning temperature range somewhere between about 750 F. and about 950 F. At these temperatures, the food soils are degraded into gaseous products which are then discharged from the oven cavity. The details of this cleaning method and of the oven design in which it may be carried out are fully disclosed in the patent of Bohdan Hurko, No. 3,121,- 158, which is also assigned to the General Electric Company, the assignee of the present invention.

The before-mentioned Swetlitz patent contemplates an oven design with removable oven wall panels having a resinous coating such as polytetrafluoroethylene which has a low food soil adhesion characteristic so as to facilitate the easy cleaning of the panels in the kitchen sink with wash water containing a simple detergent.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an oven with removable wall panels which are in- 3,425,405 Patented Feb. 4, 1969 dependently supported and may be handled without interference from the other panels.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an oven with removable wall panels of the class described where the panels are closely fitted to each other to give the appearance of a one piece oven liner.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide an oven with removable wall panels where the bottom panel underlies the lower edge of the three vertical panels so that drippage will run into the bottom panel and be confined thereto.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, in accordance with one form thereof, relates to an oven construction having an oven cavity formed by a box-like oven liner and a front-opening access door. The walls of the oven liner are shielded from the splatter of food soil and grease by removable wall panels that cover the bottom wall, the opposite side walls and the back wall of the oven liner. The bottom panel is supported on the bottom wall of the oven liner, while the three vertical panels are supported from the walls of the oven liner. There is a mating tab and hole connecting means between the back panel and the rear wall of the oven liner which supports and positions the back panel. Each side panel is provided with a vertical rear flange which turns the corner at the rear wall of the oven liner and generally abuts the adjacent side edge of the back panel. There is a mating tab and hole connecting means between the rear flange of each side panel and the rear wall of the oven liner, as well as a mating tab and hole connecting means between the front portion of each side panel and the adjacent side wall of the oven liner. Thus each removable panel is independently supported and may be removed and replaced individually without interference from the other panels.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS My invention will be better understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claims.

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a double oven electric range having an eye-level oven with removable wall panels embodying the present invention and a lower master oven that is a high temperature self-cleaning oven.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary right side cross-sectional elevational view taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 to show the method of supporting the side panel from the side wall of the oven liner and the relationship between the side panel, bottom panel and the back panel.

FIGURE 3 is an exploded perspective view of the oven liner of the eye-level oven of the range of FIGURE 1 with the several removable wall panels arranged generally in their relative positions and with parts broken away to show the lower bake element and the upper broil element of the oven.

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary cross-sectional plan view taken at the left side of the oven liner of FIGURE 3 and showing the nature of the rear flange of the side panel which turns the corner and generally abuts the side edge of the back panel, as well as showing the manner in which the bottom panel underlies the lower edge of both the side panels and the back panel.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Turning now to a consideration of the drawings and in particular to FIGURE 1, there is shown for illustrative purposes a free-standing electric range 10 having an eyelevel oven 11 embodying the removable wall panel invention as claimed herein. In addition, there is a lower master'ovnlz whichi's'a hi'gh"te'rnperatureself cleaning oven constructed accordinggto the description of the above-cited Hurko patent, 3,121,158. The self-cleaning oven 12 has an oven door 13 which is'adapted to be locked in the closed position during the self-cleaning cycle. This locking'means is illustrated simply by the oven door latch" handle '14 which moves in an elongated slot 15 formed in the front edge of the cooktop 16 as in standard production self-cleaning ovens.

'The' cooktop 16 comprises a plurality of surface heating units 17 which are each controlled by a multiple selector switch 18 to obtainvarious heating levels for the units. The two ovens 11 and 12 are controlled from a control panel 20 located at the right side of the eyelevel oven 11, and the panel includes the usual array of oven controls such as selector switches, thermostats, clock-timer, indicator lights,.etc.

The oven cavity of the eye-level oven 11 is formed by a box-like oven liner 22 of one-piece welded construction, as is best seen in'FIGURE 3, and a front-opening access door 23 shown in the assembly view of FIGURE 1. This door 23 has a narrow peripheral door frame 21 encircling a large surface area, double pane of high temperature glass 24 for viewing the interior of the oven. The oven liner 22 has a bottom wall 25, opposite side walls 26, a top wall 27 and a rear wall 28. Since the oven control panel 20 for both ovens is arranged at the right side of the eye-level oven 23, there is a wiring compartment (not shown) located behind the panel, and thus it is well to bring out the terminals of the oven heating elements through the right side wall 26 of the oven liner. This provides a maximum depth for the stantially mirror images except the upper rear corner of the right side panel 46 is partially removed as at 55 in order to accommodate the oven light 56 with its overlying lens 57. Each side panel has an outwardly turned vertical front flange 59 and a horizontal top flange 60 so as to space the panel away from the adjacent side wall of the oven liner. The lower edge of each side panel 45 and 46 has an inwardly turned sloping flange 62 so as to best carry the drippings from the panel into the bottom panel 44 as is seen in FIGURES 2 and 3. Notice the cutout 63 in the lower edge of the right side panel 46 to accommodate the terminals 32 of the lower bake element 30.

eye-level oven. Thus looking at FIGURE 3, there is a lower bake'element 30 in the form of an elongated, metal sheathed resistance heating element in loop form that has its terminal ends 32 mounted in a hinge bracket 33 in the lower, central portion of the right side wall 26 of the oven liner 22. Supporting clips or feet 35 are fastened to the bake element 30 at several places and rest on the bottom wall 25 of the oven liner to hold the bake element slightly raisedoff of the bottom wall.

Agbroil element 37 is located in the top portion of the oven liner and it is furnished with an overlying reflector 38 which tends to focus the radiant energy of the element toward the center of the oven cavity. This broil element 37 has its terminal ends 40 held in a fixed mounting bracket 41. Suitable means (not shown) support the broil element 37 and its reflector 38 in a stationary position within the oven.

There are four removable wall panels furnished with the eye-level oven 23; namely, a bottom panel 44, opposite side panels and 46 and a back panel 47. The back panel 47 is of shallow pan construction by virtue of the fact that it has a rearwardly turned peripheral flange 48.which serves as a spacing means to hold the main portion of the panel at a slight distance from the rear wall 28 of the oven liner. Each vertical side portion of the back panel flange 48 has a pair of vertically spaced hook-spaced tabs 50 which are received within rectangularly shaped holes 51 in the rear wall 28 of the oven liner. Each tab 50 has a downwardly extending hook 52 which engages behind the lower edge of the hole 51 in the rear wall so as to hold the back panel 47 in place. Thus, to remove the back panel 47 it is necessary to raise the panel slightly so that the hooks 52 are disengaged from the lower edges of the holes 51 and then the panel may be moved freely toward the oven door. To facilitate the ease of raising the back panel 47, the lower edge of the back panel has an inwardly lanced central portion 54 which serves as a hand-hold and allows a persons or embossed'fingers to be inserted thereunder. Moreover, a slight dished effect is impressed into the inner surface of the back panel 47 as is best seen in the crosssectional view of FIGURE 4.

The two opposite side Wall panels 45 and 46 are sub- The bottom panel 44 is of shallow pan construction having a raised peripheral flange 80 and an outwardly turned horizontal ledge 81. When the bottom panel 44 is in place, this ledge 81 underlies the bottom edge of each side panel 45 and 46 as well as the back panel 47, as is best seen in FIGURE 4.

Each side panel 45 and 46 has a vertical rear flange 64 which turns the corner at the rear wall of the oven liner and generally abuts the adjacent side flange 48 of the back panel 47 as is best seen in the cross-sectional plan view of FIGURE 4. Each rear flange 64 has a pair of plain tabs 65 extending rearwardly from the innermost edge thereof so as to fit into the same holes 51 in the rear wall 28 of the oven liner as do the hooked tabs 50 of the back panel 47. These tabs 65 may be plain as distinguished from hooked tabs because of their cooperation with a second set of tabs at the front portion of each side panel. This second set of tabs is exemplified by a vertical hanger strip 67 near the front edge of each side panel as seen in FIGURE 3 and extending from nearly top to bottom. This hanger strip 67 is fastened to the side panel by a series of vertically spaced rivets 68. Both the top end 70 and the bottom end 71 of this hanger strip 67 have hooked tabs which are received respectively within upper and lower mating openings 73 in the adjacent side wall 26 of-the oven liner. Each side panel 45 and 46 is also provided with a series of vertically spaced embossments 0r ledges 75 which serve as rack supports for the standard oven racks (not shown). In order to facilitate the ease of sliding the oven racks on the embossments, as well as to prevent the racks from injuring the enameled or other surface of the embossments 75, a silver bearing pad 77 is located upon the front portion of each embossment. Such a bearing pad may be of a material that is described in the patent of George A. Scott, No. 3,291,113. To reduce the costof mounting the pad 77 they are fastened to the supporting strap 67 and extend through openings 78 in the side panel. It should be understood however that this invention is not limited to removable wall panels having the particular silver pads which are illustrated.

While the various panels 44-47 are shown as touching each other, it should be understood that the panels are merely held in place by gravity and that when a single panel is grasped and a force is exerted to remove the panel from the oven liner, the other panels will easily slide upon the panel being removed and will present little or no resistance to the movement. Moreover, when drippings tend to flow down the vertical panels they will not leak between the panels and become hardened on the surfaces of the oven liner, but instead will flow into the bottom panel 44. I

Having disclosed above my invention of a novel oven with removable wall panels, it will readily be apparent to those skilled in this art that I have facilitated the ease of cleaning food soil and grease splatter from the inner surface of the panels. Moreover, I have made it easy to remove and/or replace the panels individually without the necessity of following any particular order or sequence of assembly and disassembly. The inner surfaces of these panels may either be covered with a resinous coating such as silicone or polytetrafluoroethylene so that the panels may be washed in the kitchen sink, or the panels may be coated with a high temperature porcelain enamel so that the panels may be removed from the supporting oven liner 22 and placed in the high temperature self-cleaning master oven 12 where the panels will be cleaned during the normal self-cleaning cycle of the lower oven 12. While I have chosen to illustrate the side panels 45 and 46 with integral rack supporting ,embossments 75, the side panels could be plain panels like the back panel 47. Then each side panel could be furnished with a welded wire ladderlike rack support which would be fastened to each side panel for holding the oven racks at various elevations within the oven cavity.

Modifications of this invention will occur to those skilled in this art; therefore, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to particular embodiments disclosed but that it is intended to cover all modifications which are within the true spirit and scope of this invention as claimed.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A cooking oven comprising in combination a boxlike oven liner and a front-opening access door, said oven liner having a bottom wall, opposite side walls, a rear wall and a top wall, a baking element supported adjacent the bottom wall and a broiling element located adjacent the top wall, a removable back panel supported from the rear wall of the oven liner, a mating tab and hole connecting means between the back panel and rear wall, a pair of removable side panels each supported across the face of one of the opposite side walls of the oven liner, each side panel having a vertical rear flange which turns the corner at the rear wall of the oven liner and generally abuts the adjacent side edge of the back panel, a mating tab and hole connecting means between the rear flange of the side panel and the rear wall of the oven liner, and a mating tab and hole connecting means between the front portion of each side panel and the adjacent side wall of the oven liner, and a removable bottom panel supported on the bottom wall of the oven liner and located beneath the baking element, whereby each removable panel is independently supported and may be removed and replaced individually without interference from the other panels.

2. A cooking oven as recited in claim 1 wherein the said holes are formed in the walls of the oven liner and the said tabs are carried by the back and opposite side panels.

3. A cooking oven as recited in claim 2 wherein the tabs of the back panel are hook tabs, the same holes which receive the hook tabs of the back panel also receiving the tabs of the rear flanges of the side panels, the said bottom panel being of such a size as to underlie the opposite side panels and the back panel so that drippings from the three vertical panels will be collected by the bottom panel.

4. A domestic oven comprising walls forming a boxlike oven liner and a front-opening access door, said oven liner having a bottom wall, opposite side walls, a rear wall and a top wall, heating means for the oven, 21 back panel removably supported from the said rear wall, a pair of removable side panels each supported across the face of one of the side walls of the oven liner, each side panel having a vertical rear flange which turns the corner at the rear wall of the oven liner and generally abuts the adjacent side edge of the back panel, a tab and hole means interconnecting the rear flange of each side panel and the rear wall of the oven liner, and a tab and hole means interconnecting the front portion of each side panel and the adjacent side wall of the oven liner, and a bottom panel removably supported from the bottom wall of the oven liner and underlying the opposite side panels and the back panel, whereby each removable panel is independently supported and may be removed and replaced without interference from the other panels.

5. A domestic oven as recited in claim 4 wherein the back panel has a tab and hole means supporting the back panel from the rear wall of the oven liner, the back panel carrying the said tabs and the mating holes being formed in the rear wall of the oven liner, each side panel carrying the said tabs and the mating holes being formed in the adjacent side and rear walls of the oven liner.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,841,132 7/1958 Philipp 126-19 3,120,224 2/ 1964 Divelbiss. 3,145,289 8/ 1964 Swetlitz. 3,159,156 12/1964 Incledon 126-19 FREDERICK L. MATTESON, JR., Primary Examiner.

E. G. FAVORS', Assistant Examiner. 

